Sumerians! Gobblegoths! Assyrians! They're all after King Scrooge-Shah, the stingy ruler of Fatcatstan... or they were after him, thousands of years ago. And now history repeats itself -- as Gemstone reprints "King Scrooge the First!" With a full menu of supporting stories, it's featured in Uncle Scrooge #345, a 64-page prestige book that shipped this Wednesday, August 17. You can expect to find it at your local comic shop next week or the week after.

"King Scrooge" itself is in fact a rather odd bird: a tale written by Carl Barks, but not drawn by him. Headed swiftly for his first retirement in 1966, the Old Duck Man decided not to illustrate all of the final stories from his pen. This 21-page opus was drafted by Tony Strobl, a baby boom-era fan favorite whose work has largely stayed out of print in recent years, and it's one of his best works. Follow Scrooge and the boys as, trying to beat Swami Khan Khan to a lost treasure, they end up impersonating their ancient Arabian ancestors in an elaborate hypnosis act! And then get set for more by Strobl; we've had a number of requests to publish his work, and next year we intend to offer some that's never seen print in America!
"X-Treme Scrooge," by Terry Laban and Paco Rodriguez, comes next on our menu this month. When upstart mogul Rich Slackster makes waves with his hi-tech firm byteebyte.com, Scrooge is determined to buy out the company, whatever it takes! Too bad for Scrooge, though, it "takes" extreme sports-as Slackster is seemingly a master of ski-sailing and motor-skating. Or is he?
The Beagle Boys learn "You're a Boonehead Now" in a tale by Pat and Carol McGreal. When a manic flight from the cops takes them into a scoutmasters' induction office, 176-167 and friends are soon leading pesky kids through the woods against their will. They'd love to escape, but... hmm, aren't those Boonehead award trophies gold-plated? Better hang around long enough to steal some!
Gyro Gearloose is "Lost and Found" in a short tale by Paul Halas and Jose Colomer Fonts. With American dialogue by Tony Isabella, the tale tells of Gyro's new "Find Anything" machine -- a device that, typically for Gyro, works a little too well.
Lastly we look in on Scrooge again with "Feed for Greed," a modern-day classic by fan favorite Gorm Transgaard. With a powerful ray called the "Greed-O-Matic," Scrooge can make anyone crave any item. Scrooge hopes to use the ray to create armies of extra-loyal buyers for McDuck products. But then he and Donald unexpectedly get a dose of the ray themselves... and end up in a desperate battle for a competing company's chocolate bars.

Gemstone is your source for new and vintage Disney greats. Order our titles online at http://www.gemstonepub.com/disney or http://www.walmart.com. Seek them out at your local comic shop. And if you can't corner a comic shop, no need to lose hope and join the Little Booneheads. Call Diamond Comics' Comic Shop Locator service at 1-888-COMIC-BOOK.

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